Domestic indices witness bloodbath in early deals; Sensex slips over 500 points

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session's losses with gap-down opening on Tuesday. Markets are trading deeply in red in early deals with cut of around a percent each. Selling in Consumer Durables and Realty stocks weighted down on the markets, while buying in Oil & Gas and Energy counters limit the downside. Investors remained on sidelines ahead of directional cues from central bank meetings and U.S. inflation data due later in the week. Some cautiousness came in as Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) continued to be net sellers of domestic stocks on Monday. FIIs pulled out Rs 2,397 crore from domestic stocks. Besides, the finance ministry has released the third monthly instalment of revenue deficit grant of Rs 7,183 crore to 14 states.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, amid rising prospects of the Federal Reserve resorting to aggressive policy tightening to combat rising inflation. Traders remained cautious ahead of this week's key inflation report from the U.S. which will offer cues on the interest rate outlook. Meanwhile, the average of household spending in Japan was down 1.7 percent on year in April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Tuesday - coming in at 304,510 yen. Back home, auto stocks were in focus after dealers’ body FADA saw growth in retail sales of passenger vehicles were in May, but a de-growth was witnessed in sales of two-wheelers and commercial vehicles as they remained below pre-Covid levels of May 2019.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 55153.14, down by 522.18 points or 0.94% after trading in a range of 55115.86 and 55387.77. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.91%, while Small cap index was down by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.77%, Energy up by 0.72%, PSU up by 0.33%, Utilities up by 0.28%, Power up by 0.20%, while Consumer Durables down by 2.59%, Realty down by 1.50%, Consumer Discretionary down by 1.44%, Healthcare down by 1.35%, FMCG down by 1.34% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The only gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 0.71% and Reliance Industries up by 0.06%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 4.07%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 2.90%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.34%, Asian Paints down by 2.30% and Sun Pharma down by 2.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s economic growth, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the country's growth will be driven by fiscal spending. She said BRICS should continue to serve as a platform to engage in dialogues and facilitate exchange of experiences, concerns and ideas for rebuilding a sustainable and inclusive growth trajectory.

About India's growth outlook, she said the economic growth will continue to be supported by fiscal spending along with an investment push, imparting momentum to the economy based on the idea of growth at macro level complemented by all-inclusive welfare at micro level.

The government has proposed to significantly step up the public investment by raising capital expenditure by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.5 lakh crore or 2.9 per cent of the GDP in the current financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16416.50, down by 153.05 points or 0.92% after trading in a range of 16408.50 and 16487.25. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.70%, Coal India up by 1.26%, NTPC up by 1.00%, Hindalco up by 0.13% and Reliance Industries up by 0.08%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 4.04%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 3.19%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.43%, Asian Paints down by 2.22% and Sun Pharma down by 2.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Straits Times declined 10.81 points or 0.34% to 3,215.82, Hang Seng fell 15.50 points or 0.07% to 21,638.40, Taiwan Weighted lost 82.35 points or 0.50% to 16,523.61 and KOSPI was down by 35.05 points or 1.31% to 2,635.60. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 154.18 points or 0.55% to 28,070.07, Jakarta Composite added 45.86 points or 0.65% to 7,142.44 and Shanghai Composite was up by 15.63 points or 0.48% to 3,252.00.